Every week, Shelf Life sees Tom White select and talk about a movie that lives on his DVD shelf, one he thinks we should all see.
If werewolf movies ever had a heyday, it was the 1980's, with An American Werewolf in London and The Howling showing off the best of what this particular sub-genre had to offer. Other than those two classics, it hasn't fared that well though. An American Werewolf in Paris was an unwanted horror sequel (surprise, surprise), and two high profile attempts to kick start the werewolf movie again, Wolf and The Wolfman, just fell flat. But in 2002, a movie came in under every ones radar that really embraced all the fun a werewolf movie can offer. I am, of course, talking about Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers.
With Luxembourg standing in for the Scottish Highlands, Dog Soldiers sees British soldier Cooper (Kevin McKidd) and the rest of his platoon in a training mission gone wrong, and they ultimately discover they are being used by a special forces unit as bait to capture and weaponise a live werewolf. If we can focus on that particular plot point for a minute, you will see this is basically an Aliens homage. It's the script, also written by Marshall, chock full of references like this, from The Matrix to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, that adds a lot of charm to proceedings, and despite it's obvious horror movie trappings, there is a wealth of pitch black humour to be found, livening up the downtime between the lycanthrope tinged mayhem. One scene of a make shift, battlefield surgery is the best scene of the movie (featuring Sean Pertwee's hilarious delivery of 'sausages!'), but not one for the squeamish, which could actually go for the rest of the movie, which is drenched in gore and body parts.
The movie basically adds up to a siege movie, as Cooper and his platoon hole up in an abandoned cottage to fight off an enemy they are completely outmatched against, trying to just survive until morning. This is where Dog Soldiers really kicks into high gear, as we're treated to an unbelievable amount of tension, as we really don't know where the movie is going to go, much to Marshall's credit. He keeps the screws turned as tight as they can go, and the fact he sticks with practical effects is a credit to him. There is a extremely small amount of CGI here, and the werewolves, when we see them, are an absolutely wonderful creation. A mix of make-up and animatronics, they are incredibly striking, taking up the entire frame when they are on screen. In the history of onscreen werewolves, they are certainly the most unique, towering over out human heroes, and real, credible menace.
Receiving a cinema release here and in the U.K., Dog Soldiers sneaked on DVD in the U.S., making this a little seen gem, but one with a rabid fan base. Sequels have been talked about since it's release, with Marshall himself pitching Cooper as a supernatural John McClane, with further adventures seeing him mix it up with other classic monsters. Any idea of a sequel from the director has seemed to gone by the wayside, with Marshall going onto to give us a new generation of B-Movies with the likes Doomsday and Centurion. Dog Soldiers: Fresh Meat was rumoured to be going into production in 2004, with a new writer director attached. It never moved past the pre-production phase, but the idea was still knocking around last year, with a release date set for 20th December 2014. Obviously that never came to pass, and there's no word on it's current status. But regardless of any potential sequel, Dog Soldiers is still a movie more than worthy of your time and shelf space, delivering a brutal, yet hilarious, experience.
